


Brighton(-and-Hove)

by orphan_account



Category: Paris Burning (thecitysmith)
Genre: I have a lot of feelings about Brighton (-and-Hove), Minor Character Death, Other, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 10:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1465714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Brighton and Hove, who used to be two Cities, who used to be lovers. But Brighton’s love was all consuming, and she held Hove so tightly, loved him so much, that one day she woke up with only the sad remains of his clothes in her bed and the echo of his voice in her head.</p>
<p>Cities grow. Sometimes even when they don’t mean to." - thecitysmith</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brighton(-and-Hove)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Paris Burning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/825130) by [thecitysmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecitysmith/pseuds/thecitysmith). 



 

Brighton’s eyes are too old for their face and their smile is cracking at the edges.

A long, thin scar spans the length of their right hand side, from ankle to shoulder, like something has been cut away from them. It appeared the day they woke up alone.

Brighton refused to cry after the first day.

‘Worse things happen at sea,’ they told themselves, wiping furiously at their blotchy face and staring in the mirror at the neat clinical line, red and angry.

It hasn’t faded with age.

Hove never wanted to be a City, not really, not in the way that Brighton did. Brighton wanted the people, the love, the prestige, the responsibility. Hove just wanted Brighton, and he was willing to follow in their footsteps whatever they did. The two of them would lie curled together at night, whispering their dreams and plans. Two not-yet-Cities, drunk on excitement and convinced they were invincible. The politicians campaigning for City status cast them wary looks when they walked down the halls hand in hand, but it didn’t worry either of them. Because of  _course_  they could both be the City. They were going to call the city  _Brighton-and-Hove_ for God’s sake. Just because it hadn’t been done before didn’t mean that it  _couldn’t_  be done.

They barely even contemplated the idea, in their enthusiasm. It was just so impossible to fathom a life without each other. They were Brighton and Hove, born on the same day, barely minutes apart and about as many miles. More than friends, closer than siblings, more intimate than lovers - two halves.

And then one day, after the Millennium, after the Cityhood - finally,  _finally_  the Cityhood - Brighton woke up alone.

Portsmouth held them as they screamed.

Brighton, both city and  _City_ , have never been the same since and that’s no secret. The streets are still full of colour and life, but the pull towards them is weaker. No matter how Brighton dresses up, the scar is always on show, whether they mean for it to be or not.

For most of those who live in Brighton, that’s no matter though. Their City has always loved them, and so they love their City back. The students, in particular, are quick to leap to their City’s defence.

(There are still people who blame Brighton for what happened to Hove. People who reject them. People who still say that Hove is their home, refusing to acknowledge Brighton. It breaks Brighton’s heart a little more each time someone says so.)

Sometimes, Brighton is convinced they can hear him in their head. Whispers they can never quite catch. A ghost of a laugh. Soft murmurs of reassurance when everything gets too much, too loud, and they stand on the edge of the pier, looking out to the sea and wondering - wondering but never jumping. Never.

Brighton isn’t afraid of the sea.

Brighton  _refuses_  to be afraid of the sea because their streets and their people are all they have left, and they sure as hell aren’t going to lose them. Brighton and Hove were built on the sea, the salt water crashes through their veins, and they will not let this be taken from them too. Brighton refuses to give up what Hove gave them. They lost Hove because they wanted so desperately to be a City, so that’s what they’re going to do. And if that means trying to protect their children from the sea, then so fucking be it.


End file.
